On Friday the 2nd February, Paul and I went along to the Answers by Experts morning arranged by Helen Roberts and Soraya Lavery of StartUp Britain Richmond. Helen is the Richmond StartUp Britain champion, and I was lucky to meet her in Chiswick a few weeks ago. It was Helen who invited us to the event, and who suggested we have a go with the Dragons Den style Pitch Up competition. Like most of you, standing up to speak in front of a whole bunch of people is not high up on our list of things to do. However, we are growing our business, so we took a deep breath and entered the competition.

The competition gave us all the opportunity to stand up, and proudly share our vision for our business.

Before I tell you the story of the competition, I want to say a bit more about the event. It was so much more than a competition. Helen and Soraya invited so many incredible people to be with us on Friday. Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond, was the first guest speaker. There were the competition judges; from Paypal, from the Royal Mail, from the Richmond Business School. There were the experts; Legal Specialist – Jo Tall, Financial Specialist – Kirsty Demeza and Marketing specialist – Jo Sealy. We met and talked to so many nice and interesting people.

Ok, so back to the competition. Seventy people entered the competition. Eleven of us were short-listed to present our businesses to the judges (and to the whole room!) We had to answer some fundamental questions, that every small or start up business needs to think about, when they start up. Who are you? What do you do? Who is your target market? Why would your customers buy from you? Royal Mail was offering a ‘Simple Ways to Grow’ Package, as part of the prize, and so there was a question about how you would use the package. Lastly, they asked us why we should win…

There were eleven different styles of pitches – some humorous, some creative, some straight from the heart, and some great visual presentations. Each was unique. While listening to the pitches, I felt so proud to be a part of the event. The competition gave us all the opportunity to stand up, and proudly share our vision for our business. These were all such courageous and inspiring people!

A big congratulations to Kim Villaweaver from PostTea, who was the winner of the competition. I hope to interview her and find out more about her and her company. One thing I will say is that Kim told me, that she almost didn’t enter the competition. Thank goodness she did. It shows you what happens if you take action around your dreams and passions.